Athletes defend titles in XTERRA UDC Finance Triathlon

World XTERRA 2013 title holder and Coast
to Coast winner Braden Currie fought hard from start to
finish to take out the men’s title in the 2014 XTERRA UDC
Finance Triathlon in Arrowtown today (Saturday March 8).

The strong field of 160 individual and 60 team
competitors braved the cold and icy waters of Lake Wanaka
for a 2km swim before tackling a 47km mountain bike and a
15km mountain run over the historic Miners Trail course
between Wanaka and Arrowtown.

Defending his title
and winning in 3hr 55min 25sec, which failed to beat his
course record of 3:48:05 in 2012, Currie, from Wanaka, said
he loved the race.

“The start line was hard case,
everyone was standing around talking and all of a sudden the
hooter went!” he said.

“The swim in Lake Wanaka
was magic, beautiful fresh water you can just drink, then I
just settled in and paced myself. The Motatapu is awesome,
it’s a tough course for XTERRA but I enjoyed the whole
thing. The run’s always my strength but it’s tough and
physical.”

Female winner Nicky Samuels, also from
Wanaka, came home in 4:17:10 , defending her title from 2013
and breaking her own course record by nearly four minutes.
She said the race was “brutal as expected” but liked to
support local events.

“The bike was better than
last year because last night’s rain stopped the dust, but
there’s just no easy way to do the run,” she said.

The XTERRA UDC Finance Triathlon is the equivalent to a
Half Ironman and also featured world class athletes such as
Scott Molina and Simone Maier.

Up for grabs from
today’s race were limited age group qualifying spots plus
Pro spots to the XTERRA World Championships in Hawaii.

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